Venezuela’s top prosecutor said on Monday (February 9, 2026) that his office had requested the arrest of one of the closest allies of opposition leader María Corina Machado, less than 12 hours after his release from a detention facility as part of a government move to free those facing politically motivated accusations.

The attorney general’s statement did not say whether Juan Pablo Guanipa was rearrested or give an indication of his whereabouts. The government had released him along with several other prominent opposition members on Sunday (February 8) following lengthy politically motivated detentions.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab’s office posted on social media that it had “requested the competent court to revoke the precautionary measure granted to Mr. Guanipa, due to his non-compliance with the conditions imposed by the aforementioned court.”

It did not elaborate on what conditions Mr. Guanipa, a former governor for the opposition, violated during the hours he was free, but said authorities were seeking house arrest.

Mr. Guanipa’s son, Ramón, told reporters Monday (February 9) that authorities have not yet notified him of his father’s whereabouts and their decision to place him on house arrest. He said his father did not violate the two conditions of his release — monthly check-ins with a court and no travel outside Venezuela — and showed reporters the court document listing them.

Earlier on Monday (February 9), Ms. Machado announced Mr. Guanipa had been “kidnapped” by “heavily armed men, dressed in civilian clothes” who “arrived in four vehicles and violently took him away” in a neighbourhood in the capital, Caracas.

The development marked the latest twist in the political turmoil in Venezuela in the wake of the U.S. military’s seizure on Jan. 3 of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a military base compound in Caracas in a stunning operation that landed them in New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.

The government of Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez has faced mounting pressure to free hundreds of people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political activities. The releases also followed a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ms. Rodríguez was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president after Mr. Maduro’s January 3 capture, and her government began releasing prisoners days later.

Some of those freed on Sunday (February 8) joined families waiting outside detention facilities for their loved ones. They chanted “We are not afraid! We are not afraid!” and marched a short distance.

“I am convinced that our country has completely changed,” Mr. Guanipa told reporters after his release. “I am convinced that it is now up to all of us to focus on building a free and democratic country.”

Mr. Guanipa had spent more than eight months in custody at a facility in Caracas. “My father cannot be a criminal … simply for making statements,” Ramón Guanipa said. How much longer will speaking out be a crime in this country?”

Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the release of at least 30 people on Sunday (February 8).

Several members of Ms. Machado’s political organisation were among those released on Sunday (February 8), including attorney Perkins Rocha and local organiser María Oropeza, who had in 2024 livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar.

Alfredo Romero, president of Foro Penal, expressed serious concern over Juan Pablo Mr. Guanipa’s disappearance. “So far, we have no clear information about who took him,” he said on X. “We hope he will be released immediately.”

Mr. Guanipa was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” that was plotting to boycott that month’s legislative election. Mr. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation, and said the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.

Ms. Rodríguez’s government announced Jan. 8 that it would free a significant number of those arrested — a central demand of the country’s opposition and human rights organisations with backing from the United States — but families and rights watchdogs have criticised authorities for the slow pace of the releases.

The ruling party-controlled National Assembly last week began debating an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds. The opposition and nongovernmental organisations have reacted with cautious optimism as well as with suggestions and demands for more information on the contents of the proposal.

National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez on Friday (February 6) posted a video on Instagram showing him outside a detention centre in Caracas and saying that “everyone” would be released no later than next week, once the amnesty bill is approved.

Ms. Rodríguez, the acting president, and Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke by phone in late January. His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, in a statement, said he sent a team to the country and “offered our support to help Venezuela work on a roadmap for dialogue and reconciliation”, in which human rights should be centred.

Published – February 09, 2026 11:42 pm IST

One of Venezuela’s newest news anchors sits on a stool, dressed in a flannel shirt and chinos as he delivers the day’s headlines.

He goes by “El Pana,” Venezuelan slang for “friend.”

Only, he’s not real.

El Pana, and his colleague “La Chama,” or “The Girl,” are generated using artificial intelligence, though they look, sound and move realistically.

They were created as part of an initiative dubbed “Operation Retweet” by Colombia-based organization Connectas, led by director Carlos Huertas, to publish news from a dozen independent media outlets in Venezuela and in the process protect reporters as the government has launched a crackdown on journalists and protesters.

“We decided to use artificial intelligence to be the ‘face’ of the information we’re publishing,” Huertas said in an interview, “because our colleagues who are still out doing their jobs are facing much more risk.”

At least 10 journalists have been arrested since mid-June and eight remain imprisoned on charges including terrorism, according to Reporters Without Borders.

“Here, using artificial intelligence is… almost like a mix between technology and journalism,” Huertas said, explaining the project looked to “circumvent the persecution and increasing repression” from the government as there would be no one who could face arrest.

The country’s opposition and human rights groups have said recent arrests of protesters, opposition figures and journalists are part of a government crackdown meant to quiet a sometimes violent, month-long election dispute.

Venezuela’s communications ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the AI journalism initiative. No official has responded to repeated requests for comment by Reuters about the arrests of journalists in recent weeks.

Both the opposition and President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in the July 28 election.

Maduro, in power since 2013, is backed by the Supreme Court and the electoral authority, which has not published full vote tallies because of what it says was a cyber-attack.

The opposition has shared what it says are more than 80% of vote tallies, showing a resounding win for its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez. Some international observers and many Western countries have said election conditions were unfair and demanded full tallies.

Protests since the vote have led to at least 27 deaths and 2,400 arrests, and detentions of opposition figures and protesters have continued as part of the government’s “Operation Knock Knock.”

Maduro and his administration have called protesters fascists and said they are inciting hate at the behest of countries like the United States, which Washington denies.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Over 700 people arrested during protests that erupted after Venezuela’s disputed Presidential election have been transferred to maximum security prisons. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

More than 700 people arrested during protests that erupted after Venezuela’s disputed presidential election have been transferred to maximum security prisons, a human rights group said Saturday, August 31, 2024.

The detainees, who had been held at police stations around the country, were transferred over the past week to two notorious prisons that were previously controlled by gangs, the Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said.

“In many cases, the transfers were conducted under questionable circumstances, with detainees’ relatives not informed of the moves to Tocuyito and Tocoron prisons,” the group said.

“They were conducted with many irregularities,” the NGO said in a press release.

More than 2,400 people were arrested after the protests that broke out after President Nicolas Maduro was declared winner of the disputed July 28 election.

The Opposition claims it won by a landslide and has voting records to prove this.

The leftist Maduro government, brushing off accusations of authoritarianism, has resisted intense international pressure to release vote tally numbers to back up its claim of victory.

The United States, the European Union, and several Latin American countries have refused to recognize Maduro as having won without seeing detailed voting results.

Violence that accompanied the protests left 27 people dead and 192 injured.

Also Read: Anti-Maduro protests spread as Venezuelan opposition says he stole vote

Venezuelan Prisons Observatory said none of the people transferred to maximum security facilities have been allowed to contact their families or attorneys.

Of the 2,400 detainees, 1,581 have been listed as political prisoners by another advocacy group, called Penal Forum.

Penal Forum said 114 of the total are adolescents and at least 40 of them were released on bail Saturday. Sixteen were freed from detention on Thursday.

Some of those arrested are as young as 13 and have been sent to prisons with older, common criminals, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said this week.

“What they have done is brutal,” she said of the Maduro government.